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  • Winter Training Philosophy


    In the past couple of weeks, there have been discussions and questions about how to train through the winter. I’ve also gotten a few email questions on the subject. My philosophy has formed over years of coaching and being an endurance athlete myself. I’m happy to discuss these issues on the Sunday rides or at the before/after driveway chats.

    General beliefs

    ·       I don’t think it is good for health to race year-round. Any performance gains by doing this are short-lived (maybe one season?) and there are health risks. (Chronic fatigue, injuries to the body (heart, knees, hips, tendons, shoulders, etc.) By “race” I mean long, sustained race-type efforts in events or group rides.

    ·       I do keep some intensity in training in the winter. My efforts tend to be shorter with longer recoveries. I do like the Miracle Interval format as it seems to keep some fitness without fatiguing the heart and metabolic system. Yes, I do include some efforts in Zone 3-5a that are longer but they tend to be incidental and part of the Sunday ride.

    ·       Overall endurance volume decreases. Some of this is a function of weather in Colorado. The only reason I would change this is if someone is training for an early season event.

    ·       Strength training days move from a minimum of one per week to two or three sessions per week, addressing any sport weaknesses or injury rehabilitation.

    ·       Year-round, the “hard” days remain at 2-3 per week, total in all sports. “Hard” can be workout duration, intensity or a combination of the two. It can also be a day of heavier strength training. These sessions change and evolve as we get closer to race season.

    ·       For me personally, I ride my bike less, swim a little more and alpine ski. I used to run, but now my run time is spent dog walking at Zena’s pace (no speed, heart rate or intensity goals) I like alpine skiing because it is more strength oriented and works on lateral movements of the legs rather than the continuous one plane motion produced by cycling.

    Why not race year-round?

    In my first 10-20 years of coaching and racing, it was common for athletes in northern latitudes to move to places that were warmer. (Think the southern US or even going to the southern hemisphere.) Some cyclists did cyclocross and then Nordic ski racing rather than moving south.

    I think constantly trashing your body is a recipe for trouble. Sometimes this trouble shows up relatively quickly, like with chronic fatigue, other times it takes longer.

    In recent years, several endurance athletes have openly discussed cardiac issues. Six-time Ironman champion Dave Scott has been very open about his problems:

    I smashed my heart for my entire athletic career with big volume, high intensity, inadequate rest and the long-term outcome is not what I anticipated. Thinking early on that exercise is the premium fuel for your heart is absolutely correct but too much is destructive.

    Choosing the later throughout my athletic career and having a Deep Vein Thrombosis, a Pulmonary Embolism after being hit by a car on my bike, plus two heart ablations, atrial flutter and fibrillation my fate was cast. I now have an aortic aneurysm which is irreversible.

    This FB video is worth watching:   https://www.facebook.com/reel/425677110371376

    I can come up with a list of triathletes that have heart issues (mechanical or electrical) including Emma Carney, Scott Tinley, Greg Welsh, Tim O’Donnell…and the list goes on.

     People might think, well that issue is for triathletes, certainly not cyclists. Boulder resident, top cyclist and ski racer Lennard Zinn would disagree. He co-authored the book “The Haywire Heart.” A great column about heart health and endurance sport can be found at this link.

    It’s worth noting that there are other issues that can cause electrical problems with the heart. One is a virus (cold or COVID are examples.) Endurance coach Joe Friel is very open talking about his myocarditis that occurred after getting the common cold. Two other causes include age and genetics.

    On one of my recent Strava posts I said something like “In a disappointing, sad and expected turn of events, my fitness and mountain bike skills have declined.” Yes, I am sad about the loss of fitness, part of all this is the mental aspect of fitness loss. “But I want to be the fastest me all the time!”

    If I am to stay healthy, I can’t be fast year-round and I know that. It does make me unhappy for a few workouts until I change my focus to being healthy and strong year-round because being ill or injured costs too much time away from the sports and activities I love to do.

    Be aware of the mental aspects of the sports you love – the positive and negative aspects.

    What is the optimal amount of volume and intensity to do?

    An excerpt from the last link I posted above:

    Does the scientific community have a solid definition for what an endurance athlete is? How many hours it takes per week or month to go from part-time participant to all-out endurance junkie? “Hell no,” said Dr. John Mandrola, a heart-rhythm doctor from Louisville, Kentucky, who takes a keen interest in the hearts of endurance athletes, and who is himself a cyclist with atrial fibrillation (AF). “What’s too much? That’s the $64,000 question. Though I will say it’s a little like what the judge said about indecency: ‘I know it when I see it.’”

    And sadly, some athletes won’t know how much is too much until it’s too later. The body is very good at giving you warning signs – if you are willing to listen. It will tell you if you are doing too much. Those signals include pain, inflammation, poor sleep, low HRV (for those that track this on a device), being more than normal short-tempered/crabby/distracted (best detected by those around you), inappropriate power or heart rate numbers for a given effort level, loss of enthusiasm for workouts, loss of appetite and loss of self-control (in any area) to name a few.

    I wish I could give you a number of hours per week and volume of intensity that could serve as a cap – stay below this number and you will remain healthy and optimally fit. I’m sorry to report that I don’t have that for you. You must figure out that number for yourself.

    The devil is always in the details.

     

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